Glossary F

Framing effect means decision-making bias caused by a propensity to evaluate outcomes as positive or negative changes from their current state.

Framingham heart study refers to the large-scale longitudinal study following over 5,000 residents of Framingham, Massachusetts, that has contributed to our understanding of heart disease.

Francesco Petrarch (1304- 1374) refers to a Renaissance Humanist referred to by many historians as the Father of the Renaissance who attacked Scholasticism as stifling the human spirit and urged that the classics be studied not for their religious implications but because they were the works of unique human beings. He insisted that God had given humans their vast potential so that it could be utilized. Petrarch's views about human potential helped stimulate the many artistic and literary achievements that characterized the Renaissance.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a famous person who urged an inductive, practical science that was free from the misconceptions of the past and from any theoretical influences.

Francis Cecil Sumner was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology. He was was born in Arkansas in 1895.

- Francis Galton (1822-1911) : Francis Galton one of the great scientist who was keenly interested in the measurement of individual differences, as influenced by his cousin, Charles Darwin. Galton was convinced that intellectual ability is inherited, and therefore recommended Eugenics, or the selective breeding of humans. He was the first to attempt to systematically measure intelligence, to use a questionnaire to gather data, to use a word-association test, to study mental imagery, to define and use the concepts of correlation and median, and to systematically study twins.

- Franciscus Cornelius Donders (1818-1889) : Franciscus Cornelius Donders used reaction time to measure the time it took to perform various mental acts.

- François Magendie (1783 - 1855) : François Magendie discovered, in modern times, the distinction between sensory and motor nerves.